Manual of Patriotism
GROUP VI.
1. COLUMBUS' DAY ..Song, Columbus.
2. LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. Song, The Breaking Waves Dashed High.
3. LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ... Song, Three Cheers for the Olden Tinie.
4. FouRTH OF JULY .Song, Independence Day.
5. YORKTOWN ...••.Song, The Land of Washington.
A few years ago “this country of ours” made a great celebration in honor of the four hundredth anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus on this continent. I suppose all Empire State boys and girls can point out on the map just the spot where the landing was made, the cross planted, and the flag raised. Of course, it was not the dear flag of the stars and stripes. Who can tell what banner it was? I am quite sure you know that,—butperhaps you have forgotten the precise day—October 12, 1492—when Columbus stepped on shore, saved from the perils of the sea, and from death at the hands of his own crew. Perhaps some of you—the older children—went to Chicago in 1893 and saw the “White City”—a wonderful group of buildings, filled with rare and beautiful things from every part of the earth. And it was all in memory of the great sailor and discoverer, Columbus. But you children cannot celebrate in that way—not even by building palaces of play-blocks. You can recall the great navigator by telling the story of his life,—his birth in far-off Genoa—his longing for the sea—his appearance at the Court of Spain—his reception by Queen Isabella—the sacrifices which, for his sake, she made—his various voyages—his imprisonment and death. It is a wonderful story, is it not? Such a story as boys and girls should cherish because of the lessons of Faith and Perseverance which it teaches,—lessons which may help them to the use of the same noble qualities.
In Columbus were singularly combined the practical and the poetical. His mind had grasped all kinds of knowledge, whether procured by study or observation, which bore upon his theories; impatient of the scanty aliment of the day, his impetuous ardor, as has well been observed, threw him into the study of the fathers of the Church, the Arabian Jews, and the ancient geographers; while his daring, but irregular, genius, bursting from the limits of imperfect science, bore him to conclusions far beyond the intellectual vision of his contemporaries. If some of his conclusions were erroneous, they were at least ingenious and splendid, and their error resulted from the clouds which still hung over his peculiar path of enterprise. His own discoveries enlightened the ignorance of the age, guided conjecture to certainty, and dispelled that very darkness with which he had been obliged to struggle.
In the progress of his discoveries he has been remarked for the extreme sagacity and the admirable justness with which he seized upon the phenomena of the exterior world. The variations, for instance, of terrestrial magnetism, the direction of currents, the grouping of marine plants, fixing one of the grand climacteric divisions of the ocean, the temperatures changing not solely with the distance to the equator, but also with the difference of meridians; these and similar phenomena, as they broke upon him, were discerned with wonderful quickness of perception, and made to contribute important principles to the stock of general knowledge. This lucidity of spirit, this quick convertibility of facts to principles, distinguish him from the dawn to the close of his sublime enterprise, insomuch that with all the sallying ardor of his imagination, his ultimate success has been admirably characterized as a “conquest of reflection.”—Washington Irving.
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All hail, Columbus, discoverer, dreamer, hero, and apostle! We here, of every race and country, recognize the horizon which bounded his vision, and the infinite scope of his genius. The voice of gratitude and praise for all the blessings which have been showered upon mankind by his dventure is limited to no language, but is uttered in every tongue. Neither marble nor brass can fitly form his statue. Continents are his monument, and unnumbered millions, past, present, and to come, who enjoy in their liberties and their happiness the fruits of his faith, will reverently guard and preserve, from century to century, his name and fame.—Chauncey Mitchell Depew, from Dedicatory Oration at World's Columbian Exposition.
IN the year 1620—some people say on December 21st, others December 22d—a company of Pilgrims, as they are called, landed at a place now known as Plymouth, on the coast of Massachusetts. They were English folk, but came to this country straight from Holland, having been driven from their former home in England by religious persecution. But I need not tell here the story of their sufferings on the slow and stormy voyage across the ocean—nor how cold and cheerless was the landing in the depth of winter. What child has not read it in the history book, or heard the story repeated at the fireside? Yet no matter how often the story may have been read, or told, it is well to keep in mind and to celebrate, at least once a year, the good traits of the Forefathers.
They were not real generous men and women in their treatment of those who differed from them in belief, yet they were mild indeed in comparison with the Puritans, as they were called,—a company of men and women who came to this country much later in the century. But if we cannot celebrate the kindness of the Pilgrims, we certainly may their faith. How greatly they needed it in all their troubles on land and tempests on sea, and how grandly they showed it! And so with their courage. Was it not a splendid trait in their character? Neither starvation, disease, nor the Indian's tomahawk could make them fear. (Just here might come in a study of “The Indian” in our country's history.) And so, children, study out and tell to your teachers other good things about these early and hardy colonists,—for “they fought a good fight.”
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By permission of SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY. From" Song3 of the Nation.”
Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future state, and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore. I see them, now, scantily supplied with provisions, crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now, driven in fury before the raging tempest, in their scarcely seaworthy vessel. The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts seem straining from their base; the dismal sound of the pumps is heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly from billow to billow; the ocean breaks and settles with ingulfing floods over the floating deck, and beats with deadening weight against the staggering vessel. I see them escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but desperate undertaking, and landed at last, after a five months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth, weak and exhausted from the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the charity of their ship-master for a draught of beer on board, drinking nothing but water on shore, without shelter, without means, surrounded by hostile tribes.
Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers? * * * Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventurers of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was it the winter storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women and children? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was it the tomahawk? was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments at the recollections of the loved and left, >beyond the sea? was it some or all of them united that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope! Is it possible that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, a reality so important, a promise yet to be fulfilled so glorious!—Edward Everett.
THESE are memorable places on he map of American history. For the brave stand a few colonial farmers there made against trained British regulars was the opening fight of a Revolution, a struggle for independence, which never ceased nor slackened until England gave up the contest at Yorktown, seven years later.
This fight at Lexington and Concord was fought April 17, 1775. Even yet, that is a great day in New England, and kept with more ceremony and enthusiasm than the Fourth of July. Let me tell you what the boys in Lexington do on that day: Early in the morning they rise up, hurry into their clothes and march away to Concord, over the very ground the soldiers trod a century and a quarter ago. On their march, they pass by many places where now are memorial tablets, telling what was done here and there along the whole line of their journey. Who cannot see what a vividness and sense of reality this early morning march, year by year, must give to these young patriots? But if New York children cannot actually travel on foot from Lexington to Concord, playing soldier, they may, in imagination, walk along the avenue of History, seeing by the roadside the inscriptions and memorials which History herself has put there, that the Nation may keep in mind the dangers and hardships endured by the men of olden time, that they might secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of independence.
Darkness closed upon the country and upon the town, but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war message from hand to hand, till village repeated to village, the sea to the backwoods, the plains to the highlands, and it was never suffered to droop till it had been borne North and South and East and West, throughout the land. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco and the Penobscot; its loud reveille broke the rest of the trappers of New Hampshire, and, ringing like bugle notes from peak to peak, overleapt the Green Mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the ocean river till the responses were echoed from the cliffs at Quebec. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale. As the summons hurried to the South, it was one day at New York, in one more at Philadelphia, the next it lighted a watch-fire at Baltimore, thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mt. Vernon, it was sent fonvard, without a halt, to Williamsburg. It traversed the Dismal Swamp to Nansemond, along the route of the first emigrants to North Carolina. It moved onward and still onward, through boundless groves of evergreen, to Newbern and to Wilmington..
“For God's sake, fonvard it by night and day,” wrote Cornelius Harnett, by the express which sped for Brunswick. Patriots of South Carolina caught up its tones at the border and despatched it to Charleston, and, through pines and palmettos and moss-clad live-oaks, farther to the South, till it resounded among the New England settlements beyond the Savannah. The Blue Ridge took up the voice and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Alleghanies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the “loud call” might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the Holstein, the Watauga and the French Broad. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky, so that hunters who made their halt in the valleys of the Elkhorn commemorated the nineteenth day of April, 1776, by naming their encampment “Lexington.” With one impulse the Colonies sprung to arms; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other, “to be ready for the extreme event.” With one heart the continent cried, “Liberty or death!"—George Bancroft.
It was a brilliant April night. The winter had been unusually mild, and the spring very forward. The hills were already green; the early grain waved in the fields; and the air was sweet with blossoming orchards. Already the robins whistled, the blue-bird sang, and the benediction of peace rested upon the landscape. Under the cloudless moon, the soldiers silently marched, and Paul Revere swiftly rode, galloping through Medford and West Cambridge, rousing every house as he went, spurring for Lexington, and Hancock, and Adams, and evading the British patrols who had been sent out to stop the news. Stop the news! Already the village church bells were beginning to ring the alarm, as the pulpits beneath them had been ringing for many a year. window. In the awakening houses lights flashed from wiri_dow to Drums beat faintly far away and on every side. Signal guns flashed and echoed. The watch-dogs barked, the cocks crew. Stop the news! Stop the sunrise! The murmuring night trembled with the summons so earnestly expected, so dreaded, so desired. And as, long ago, the voice rang out a:t midnight along the Syrian shore, wailing that great Pan was dead, but in the same moment the choiring angels whispered, “Glory to God in the highest, for Christ is born!” so, if the stern alarm of that April night seemed to many a wistful and loyal heart to portend the passing glory of British dominion and the tragical chance of war, it whispered to them with prophetic inspiration, “Goodwill to men: America is born!"—George William Curtis, from the oration delivered at the centennial celebration of Concord fight.
FANNY CROSBY.
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INDEPENDENCE DAY.
BERNHARD KLEIN.
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I All our hearts with thanks o'er• flow—ing, In—de—pend—ence Day once more.
It is not likely that boys or girls would consent to go to school on “the glorious Fourth.” If they were asked to do so, they probably would read a declaration of independence, all of their own making. And so, it might be asked “Why suggest any exercise for that day?” Why, because we ought not to forget such a day. True—but are we not in danger of forgetting if we do not call it to mind at least once a year? Alas l it is much to be feared that very many boys think the day was made for the express purpose of setting off firecrackers—small and giant ones—touching off small cannon, skyrockets, Roman candles and lots of other dangerous playthings. With the girls, the Fourth is a great picnic day.
But, really, the day was not made for the sake of powder, picnics and noise. It was set aside as a day in which to recall the signing of the Declaration of Independence— independence from the grasping and greed of England. But such a glorious deed can be celebrated at any convenient time in the calendar of school days. It is always in order to speak of the life and patriotism of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration; always right to read aloud, for the benefit o.f others, the great truths which the Declaration contains; at any time, interesting to look over the list of signers of the Declaration and to study their lives. Let me commend John Hancock, Roger Sherman, Whipple, of New Hampshire. See, young folks, if you cannot find other names with histories as interesting.
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that, at the beginning, we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity that shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration? * * * Whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure and it may cost blood, but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it ,vith thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment; independence, now; and Independence Forever!—Daniel Webster, from supposed speech of John Adams.
The United States is the only country with a known birthday. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they knew not how. If there had been no Independence Day, England and America combined would not be so great as each actually is. There is no “Republican,” no “Democrat” on the Fourth of July,—all are Americans. All feel that their country is greater than party.—Iantes G. Blaine.
On the Fourth of July, 1776, the representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. This declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in the justice of their cause, and the protection of Providence, and yet not without deep solicitude and anxiety, has stood for seventy-five years, and still stands. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers and overcome them. It has had enemies and it has conquered them. It has had detractors, and it has abashed them all. It has had doubting friends, but it has cleared all doubts away. And now, to-day, raising its august form higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people contemplate it with hallowed love, and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have followed, with profound admiration.—Daniel Webster.
You have all read the Declaration of Independence; you have it by heart; you have heard it read to-day. A hundred years ago, it was a revelation, startling, with new terror, kings on their thrones, and bidding serfs in their poor huts rise and take heart, and look up with new hope of deliverance. It asserted that all men, kings and peasants, master and servant, rich and poor, were born equal, with equal rights, inheritors of equal claim to protection before the law; that governments derived their just powers, not from conquest or force, but from the consent of the governed, and existed only for their protection and to make them happy. These were the truths, eternal, but long unspoken; truths that few dared to utter, which, Providence ordained, should be revealed here in America, to be the political creed of the people, all over the earth. Like a trumpet blast in the night, it pealed through the dark abodes of misery, and roused men to thought, and hope and action.—Richard O'Gorman.
THIS great battle—great for the time and great in its consequences—was fought October 19, 1781. There was scattered fighting for a year or two after that day between America and England,—but the Revolution really ended with that memorable struggle. It will prove of great interest to the young folks in school to trace the history of our seven years' Revolutionary War from Lexington to Yorktown. Let them not think of naming every battle, just when, just where it was fought,—but p-icking out here and there a great event, let them follmv the long road, now sunlighted, now deeply shadowed, from colonial dependence to independent statehood. Knowledge of this sort, thus gained, will make of the children in years to come more intelligent, more patriotic citizens, than they could possibly be without such training. And on that long road they should be able to pick up, as one might pluck a flower by the wayside, many a pleasant story of the times whose fragrance and memory may be lasting and sweet. Take, for instance, the story of Dolly Madison for the girls; for the boys, that of the Boston lads who went to General Gage and made their demands upon him, like the saucy little Yankees they were!
And when they have reached the end of the long road, let them stop and see the Yorktown battle by sea and land; note the help of the French and the gallantry of La Fayette; watch the daring of the Americans and the bravery of Washington. Will it not indeed pay us to remember Yorktown?
(Closing passage from Centennial address, October 18, 1881.)
“You are the advance guard of the human race; you have the future of the world,” said Madame de Stael to a distinguished American, recalling with pride what France had done for us at Yorktown. Let us lift ourselves to a full sense of such responsibility for the progress of freedom, in other lands as well as in our own. * * *
We cannot escape from the great responsibilities of this great intervention of American example; and it involves nothing less than the hope or the despair of the Ages! Let us strive, then, to aid and advance the liberty of the world, in the only legitimate way in our power, by patriotic fidelity and devotion in upholding, illustrating, and adorning our own free institutions. We have nothing to fear except from ourselves. We are one by the configuration of nature and by the strong impress of art,—inextricably intwined by the lay of our land, the run of our rivers, the chain of our lakes, and the iron network of our crossing and recrossing and ever multiplying and still advancing tracks of trade and travel. We are one by the memories of our fathers. We are one by the hopes of our children. We are one by a Constitution and a Union which have not only survived the shock of foreign and civil war, but have stood the abeyance of almost all administrations, while the whole people were waiting breathless, in alternate hope and fear, for the issues of an execrable crime.. With thesurrender to each other of all our old sectional animosities and prejudices, let us be one, henceforth and always, in mutual regard, conciliation, and affection!
"Go on, hand in hand, 0 States, never to be disunited! Be the praise and heroic song of all posterity! “On this auspicious day let me invoke, as I devoutly and fervently do, the choicest and richest blessings of Heaven on those who shall do most, in all time to come, to preserve our beloved country in Unity, Peace, and Concord.—Robert Charles Winthrop.
THE LAND OF WASHINGTON.
NoTR.—“The melody of this song was called the u Drum and Fife March,,, by the Provincial army, and was a great favorite of the American troops, especially as it was played by them at the Battle of Yorktown, As the publisher is desirous of rescuing from oblivion a spirit-stirring melody, once so familiar in the American camp, it is here given anew.”
Words by GEO. P. MORRIS, Music adapted by F. H. BROWN.
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THE LAND OF WASHINGTON.
CHORUS.
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THE FLAG RECALLS.
The Marquis de Rochambeau, at the Centennial Anniversary of Yorktown, said:
“Citizens of the United States: You have invited us to celebrate with you a great achievement of arms, and we did not hesitate to brave the terrors of the ocean to say to you that what our fathers did in 1781 we, their sons, would be willing to do to-day, and attest our constant friendship, and further show that we cherish the same sentiments as our fathers in those glorious days we now celebrate. In the name of my companions, who represent here the men who fought, permit me to hope that the attachment formed in these days around this monument which is about to be erected will be renewed in one hundred years, and will again celebrate the victory which joined our fathers in comradeship and alliance.”
President Arthur's address, at the Centennial Anniversary of Yorktown:
“Upon this soil one hundred years ago our forefathers brought to a successful issue their heroic struggle for independence. Here and then was established, and, as we trust, made secure upon this continent for ages yet to come, that principle of government which is the very fibre of our political system—the sovereignty of the people. The resentments which attended and for a time survived the clash of arms have long since ceased to animate our hearts. It is with no feeling of exultation over a defeated foe that to-day we summon up a remembrance of those events which have made holy ground where we tread. Surely no such unworthy sentiment could find harbor in our hearts, so profoundly thrilled with that expression of sorrow and sympathy which our na:tional bereavement has evolved from the people of England and their august sovereign; but it is altogether fitting that we should gather here to refresh our souls with the contemplation of the unfaltering patriotism, the sturdy zeal and the sublime faith with which were achieved the results we now commemorate. For so, if we learn aright the lesson of the hour, shall we be incited to transmit to the generation which shall follow the precious legacy which our fathers left to us—the love of liberty protected by law.
“Of that historic scene which we here celebrate, no feature is more prominent and none more touching than the participation of our gallant allies from across the sea. It was their presence which gave fresh and vigorous impulse to the hopes of our countrymen when well-nigh disheartened by a long series of disasters. It was their noble and generous aid, extended in the darkest period of that struggle, which sped the coming of our triumph and made capitulation at Yorktown possible, a century ago. To their descendants and representatives who are here present as honored guests of the nation, it is my glad duty to offer a cordial welcome. You have a right to share with us the associations which cluste.r about the day when your fathers fought side by side with our fathers in the cause which was here crowned with success, and none of the memories awakened by this anniversary are more grateful to us all than the reflection that the national friendships here so closely cemented have outlasted the mutations of a changeful century. God grant, my countrymen, that they may ever remain unshaken, and that henceforth, with ourselves and with all nations of the earth, we may be at peace.”